MY THREE MOTHERS

Who is my mother? What can I do for my mother? How important is my mother to me? ...These are the questions that crop in our mind when we take a broader view of the word 'mother'. However, there may be many who would laugh at these questions and at me who is discussing them... Because mother is a common word known to each one of us– a mother gives us birth, rears us with great love and sacrifice, and teaches us from the first day as to how to live in this world. Undoubtedly, all this is true. Then why to unnecessarily raise all these questions in the present context? Here is the reason...

Actually, we need to look at the word from a broader perspective. For us, the meaning of 'mother' is the one who gave us birth. But, in reality, we all have three mothers. Don't get startled because this is quite a true statement.

One mother is our own mother, who gave us birth and provided us with comforts of all kinds by taking the troubles on herself. Had she not carefully reared us, we would have perhaps not survived in many cases. She deserves our gratefulness to the maximum. We have to prove ourselves worthy of her affection and sacrifice. We have to not only obey her but look after her as best as we can when she grows old or is at the brink of suffering. We have come to this world due to her. Her milk of kindness runs through our veins. So, we owe a lot to her.

We have a second mother, a greater one– our 'Mother Earth'. We live on this earth and it bears all our burdens. We consume everything from her treasury– we drink water, breathe air and grow crops. Mother earth witnesses all our good and bad deeds. We ill-treat her, but she tolerates everything. In return of her kindness, we ruin and exploit her by taking away everything in the name of our greed. By taking away timber and the forest wealth, we have exposed her to the calamities like floods and droughts. We have polluted its atmosphere to the extent that at some places, its air has turned poisonous. What have we done to repay its debt? Instead, we have filled our bellies with her treasure and are still hungry. Our heads should bend in shame on realising the extent of humiliation we have caused to our 'Mother Earth'. In fact, our sins are unpardonable. 'Jananijanmabhoomischaswargadapigariyasi'(Mother Earth is superior to the Heaven)– This has been the teaching of the enlightened saints to the children of Mother Earth. But, thanks to our sheer selfishness that we have turned this heavenly earth into hell today!

Our third mother and the greatest of all is God. 'Twamevamaata cha pitaatwameva...' (You are my mother and You are my father, O God)– has been our refrain. We are the children of God. But it is a matter of great sorrow that we have today forgotten God completely in our day-to-day business. Not just that! We have gone to the extent of denying the very existence of God– our Creator! How thankless we are! God has created this universe. He has been kind enough to give us life and the means to sustain life. But, if we assess our own doings, it will be concluded that we have always betrayed God. We have disturbed world peace by our deeds. God sent us to cherish the feelings of cooperation and brotherhood. But, we ruled out these attributes owing to our selfishness and narrow-mindedness. God wanted us to follow the path of truth, ethics, morality and spirituality. We instead followed the path of falsity and immorality. We fight with each other, snatch away peace from others, cross out factors like humanity and responsibility– all in the name of our selfishness and narrow-mindedness.

Friends, just once, remember your three mothers and the gifts they have given to you. Shake your inner consciousness and realise what we are doing in return of their immeasurable kindness. Ponder as to how you can repay them for their blessings. In fact, join the mission of those great ones, who have made it their sole motto to establish peace in the world...who have the courage and capability to accomplish this great task...and who are working day and night to apprise people of their duty towards society and God. If you do it, you will indeed be among those who make this earth a real heaven, where peace and serenity reigns supreme.